This invention relates to memory chips or buttons, and is directed to a holder for such chip buttons.
The productivity of workers in many industries is frequently limited or hampered by burdensome paperwork. In certain industries this problem is especially acute because the hands-on nature of the work makes it cumbersome to use traditional methods of data entry such as keystrokes on a keyboard.
For example, in the hospital industry, locating and identifying equipment and patients in large medical complexes can be a troublesome task which is not necessarily well-suited to data entry from a keyboard.
Memory chips or buttons are useful to address this type of problem by permitting the worker to gather necessary data with a minimum of effort. Relevant data is stored in the button and small hand-held instruments can be used to read that data by simply "touching" the instrument to the button (this type of chip is sometimes called a "touch memory"), by the use of radio-frequency access to the chip information (an antenna transmits the information, eliminating the need for actual direct contact with the chip), or similar data exchange technology. Through such processes, data can be gathered and/or exchanged more quickly, accurately and easily than through more traditional methods.
The useful life of the chips is extended by their reprogrammability. In the aforementioned hospital application, for example, a single chip button could be utilized with one patient until that patient is discharged, the chip then disinfected and erased, and finally reprogrammed for use with a new patient. Obviously, this process could be repeated to extend the useful life of each chip button, thereby saving resources and money and reducing ecological waste.
Even where the chips are not reprogrammable or are not "recycled" by reprogramming, there is a need for a simple, inexpensive device to securely attach the chips to a person or thing, so that the person or thing can be accurately associated with the information stored in the chip. Such a securement device would enable the aforedescribed benefits of chip button technology to be realized.
In using this chip technology to identify persons or things, it is imperative that the securement of the chip to the person or thing be relatively tamper-proof. The system would be of little value if the chips could be inadvertently dislodged or removed from the person or thing which they are to identify. In other words, once the chip is programmed with information about the person or thing, the securement device must retain the chip's physical association with that person or thing until such time as the chip is intended to be removed.